Knowing God: Chapter 6

Knowing God – Week 7:

Chapter 6: He Shall Testify

REVIEW

• Compassion of Christ – The Real Kenosis

• Packer (pg 58-59)
  “The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context…not simply as a marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace.”

• Packer (page 63)
  “The Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all year round. [Instead; our] ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.”

Trinity

• The Athanasian Creed

And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

• Packer (page 68)
  “the mystery of the trinity: three persons, and one God, the Son doing the will of the father and the Spirit doing the will of the Father and the Son”
  
  

• Calvin – Institutes on Trinity

• Oneness
  “For Paul so connects these three – God, faith and baptism – as to reason from one to the other: namely, because faith is one, that he may thereby show God to be one; because baptism is one, that he may thence show faith also to be one.

• Threeness

  • “Indeed, the words “Father”, “Son” and “Spirit” imply a real distinction – let no one think that these titles, whereby God is variously designated from his works, are empty – but a distinction.

    • The Father is attributed the beginning of activity and the fountain and wellspring of all things

    • The Son, wisdom, counsel and the ordered disposition of all things

    • The Spirit is assigned the power and efficacy of that activity

  • There are thus three, not in status, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power but in its manifestation.

third person

• John 14: 12 – 18

? Comforter – counselor – helper – advocate
What ideas does this word convey?

• Packer (page 68)
  “the ministry of Christ the Comforter was important, the ministry of the Holy Spirit the Comforter can scarcely be less important”

• Divine Yet Ignored

  • Packer (page 68)
    “The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of Christian doctrines. Comparatively few seem to be interested.”

? Do you agree? Why or why not?
How does your awareness of the Spirit’s work make a difference in your own life? Are you aware?

power of the holy spirit

• Acts 2: 1 – 8

  • “a rushing mighty wind” – like a hurricane

  • Calvin, “we are never rightly prepared to receive the grace of God, unless the confidence (and boldness) of the flesh be tamed.”

? What purposes of God was the Spirit thus given to fulfill?

• Acts 2: 40 – 47

  • Calvin
    “that they did constantly give themselves to those exercises which serve to the confirmation of faith”

    • Doctrine – bond of brotherly fellowship
      (Marks of the Church: Word, Sacraments, Discipline)

    • Fellowship – mutual society

    • Breaking of Bread – sharing of meals

    • Prayer – public profession of faith

      • Brian Habig (Common Grounds Online)
        “maybe devotion to “the prayers” has untapped potential for followers of Christ who want and need to pray right now but are too overwhelmed to do so: the student going through depression, the family going through tragedy, the young mother constantly being interrupted.”

• Importance

  • No New Testament (page 70)
    “The promise was that, taught by the Spirit, these disciples should be enabled to speak as so many mouths of Christ so that, just as the Old Testament prophets had been able to introduce theirs sermons with the words, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah”, so the New Testament apostles might with equal truth be able to say their teaching, oral or written, “Thus saith the Lord Jesus Christ.”

• No Faith, No New Birth – No Christians (page 71)
  “Because the Spirit abides with the church to testify of Christ. To the apostles, he testified by revealing and inspiring…to the rest of us, down the ages he testifies by illuminating: opening blinded eyes, restoring spiritual vision, enabling sinners to see that the Gospel is indeed God’s truth…”

our relationship with the spirit

• Romans 8: 12 – 17

? Describe the relationship a Christian should have with the Holy Spirit?
a non-believer does have to the Holy Spirit?

• Steven Cowan
  “the work of the Holy Spirit is crucial if apologetics is to succeed in convincing unbelievers of the truth of Christianity…This means that apologetic arguments cannot by themselves bring a person to faith in Christ.”

• Packer (page 71)
  “Christ’s human witnesses must learn to ground their hopes of success not on clever presentation of the truth by man, but on powerful demonstration of the truth by the Spirit.”

? How can we honor the Spirit in our faith? in our life? in our witness?

open discussion